Earth Changes

At least 10 killed in Balochistan, Pakistan floods

Saumya joshi
Republic World
Mon, 20 Mar 2023 11:23 UTC

Torrents sweep away 10 in Balochistan, Pakistan

At least 10 people have been swept away in a flood in the Awaran and Zhob areas of Balochistan due to the heavy rainfall on Sunday, reported Dawn.

According to the disaster management officials, of those 10 people who died in the Balochistan flash floods, eight belonged to a family which was on its way to Kalat from Awaran in a vehicle. The eight family members included three women, two children and three men, as per multiple media reports.

The heavy rains started on Friday (night) in Khuzdar and Awaran districts which have caused floods in seasonal streams, as per a local news agency.

Rain, hailstorm damage wheat crop in key states in India

Zia Haq
Hindustan Times
Mon, 20 Mar 2023 10:17 UTC

Heavy rainfall has been recorded in Punjab, Haryana, Odisha, Telangana, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Tamil Nadu in the past 24 hours.

Storms, rain or hail could batter almost the entire country for another two days, an update by the India Meteorological Department said on Sunday.

Squally weather and rain have damaged wheat crop in almost all key producer states, but finding out the extent of losses might take weeks, according to preliminary assessments by a panel formed in view of anticipated early-summer heatwaves.

Storms, rain or hail could batter almost the entire country for another two days, an update by the India Meteorological Department said on Sunday. Several rain-bearing systems are currently active, it said.

Crop-shriveling hot spells have, however, not struck any wheat-growing state in March so far, as predicted, barring pockets of Gujarat and Konkan in western India.

India is on alert over heatwaves which could pressure the economy, especially agriculture, power generation and water supply. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has been reviewing the situation, spelling out emergency measures.

Lightning, hailstorm claim the lives of 16 people and 80 cattle in 2 days in Madhya Pradesh, India

Free Press Journal
Mon, 20 Mar 2023 10:03 UTC

Representative Image

At least 16 people lost their lives and 14 others were injured in lightning and rain related incidents across the state in past days. Hail and lightning also claimed the lives of around 100 cattle in the state, according to the meteorological department.

At least 4 persons were killed as severe storms accompanied by heavy rain, lightning and gusty winds swept through Khandwa. Sagar reported three deaths and Satna and Raisen two deaths each. Narmadapura, Dhar, Ratlam, Ashok Nagar, Damoh reported one death each in the last two days .

Cattle deaths were reported from Betul, Itarsi and Satna. Itarsi (Chanagarh) reported the death of 35 cattle, Betul 32 cattle and Satna 13 cattle.

Gusty winds accompanied with rain and hailstorm caused damage to properties and standing crop in Betul, Mandsaur, Khandwa, Khargone, Alirajpur, Jhabua, Neemuch, Dhar, Sehore, Harda, Rajgarh, Raisen, Damoh and Agar.

Meteorological department senior officer Ved Pratap Singh said strong wind and hailstorm damaged crops in the state, while lightning claimed lives of labourers working in the agricultural field. In the last 24 hours, 3cm rain was reported in Silwani, Burhanpur, Khajuraho, Khaknar, Depalpur, Badarwas. Similarly, 2cm rainfall in Nepanagar, Navibag, Kolaras, Multai, Malanjkhand and Nateran.

Two minor girls killed in lightning strike in Chhattisgarh, India

Times of India
Mon, 20 Mar 2023 09:58 UTC

Representative Image

Two minor girls were killed after being struck by lightning in Bastar's Kondagaon district on Saturday afternoon, said Kondagaon SDOP Nimitesh Singh.

The incident took place at Chilputi village, 8 km from Kondagaon district headquarters, around 2.30 pm on Saturday when the two girls, identified as Monika Nag (10) and Radha Markam (10), were out to collect tamarind in a nearby jungle.

Eyewitness said that the two girls were taking shelter under a tree to protect themselves from rain when lightning struck them. The other villagers present nearby rushed to the spot and informed their relatives. Ambulance was called and the girls were taken to the district hospital, where the doctors declared them dead.

The two class 6th girls died on the spot, said the SDOP. Postmortem examination was done immediately after the incident on Saturday afternoon and bodies were handed over to their families the same evening. Police had registered a case, said the SDOP.

Sailboat attacked and disabled by orcas in Strait of Gibraltar

The Maritime Executive
Tue, 14 Mar 2023 12:36 UTC

Orcas off Spain (file image courtesy MITMA)

The Strait of Gibraltar's notorious orcas are back. This week, another sailboat was disabled off Cape Spartel by killer whales who attacked it until they had broken its rudder - a pattern all too familiar to sailors in the region.

Early on Monday, the crew of the sailboat Larios made a distress call and reported that their vessel was disabled. They had come into contact with three orcas and had lost their rudder. Salvamar Maritimo dispatched the rescue boat Salvamar Arcturus from the port of Tarifa to give them assistance, and the Arcturus towed them all the way to Barbate for repairs.

There has never been a documented fatal attack on a human by an orca in the wild, but orcas have been knocking into sailboats off the Strait of Gibraltar and the coast of Galicia for years. Between July and October of 2020 alone, there were at least 40 reported orca incidents involving sailboats off Spain and Portugal. The attacks have a specific pattern: the orcas always target the rudder, and often cause the boat to swing through a wide arc. The vessels targeted are always sailboats under 15 meters in length.

France reports 910 dolphins washed up on Atlantic coast since the start of winter

France24
Fri, 17 Mar 2023 12:09 UTC

At least 910 dolphins have washed up on France's Atlantic coast since the start of the winter, an oceanographic institute reported Friday.

Over the past week alone, more than 400 of the marine mammals were found stranded along the coast, an "unprecedented" number, the Pelagis oceanographic observatory based in the western city of La Rochelle said in a report.

The figures were still provisional, it added.

Early examinations of the dolphins showed that some of them had been dead for days, and others for several weeks.

Indonesia's Merapi volcano erupts, spews hot lava

MSN
Fri, 17 Mar 2023 11:42 UTC

Indonesia's Mount Merapi, one of the world's most active volcanoes, erupted late Friday and continued to spew hot ash and other volcanic material on Saturday.

Footage of flaming lava pouring out of the crater and a tall column of hot cloud rising 1,300 metres into the air was taken by the government-run Merapi Volcano Observatory on Friday night.

The volcano continued to spew hot ash and hot lava was visible on Saturday.

"Residents should anticipate the disruption due to the volcanic ash from Mount Merapi eruption and please be on alert for the danger of volcanic mudflow, especially when it rains around Merapi," the country's volcanology agency said in a statement Saturday.

Source: AFP

Cameroon - Severe floods hit Buea, south west region

Richard Davies
Floodlist
Sun, 19 Mar 2023 11:19 UTC

Powerful flash floods raced through streets in the city of Buea, the capital of the Southwest Region of Cameroon, on 18 March 2023.

Dozens of buildings and homes were destroyed or damaged, leaving families homeless. One person reportedly died after being dragged by flood water. A further five people were reported injured. The situation is still developing and authorities have yet to confirm any details or figures. Some local media sources said the death toll was much higher, while others reported at least 6 people were thought to be missing.

The city of around 300,000 inhabitants is situated on the eastern slopes of Mount Cameroon. Local observers said heavy rain on 18 March flowed down the steep slopes and into residential and business areas of the city. The city's poor drainage infrastructure was unable to cope. Buea experienced flooding in similar circumstances in March 2020.

At least 16 dead after magnitude 6.8 earthquake shakes Ecuador

Maija Ehlinger, Marlon Sorto, Abel Alvarado and Heather Chen,
CNN
Sat, 18 Mar 2023 11:06 UTC

© Jhonny Crespo/AP
Residents look at a building that collapsed after an earthquake struck Machala, Ecuador, on March 18, 2023.

At least 16 people died after a magnitude 6.8 earthquake struck southern Ecuador on Saturday afternoon, according to government officials.

The earthquake struck near the southern town of Baláo and was more than 65 km (nearly 41 miles) deep, according to the United States Geological Survey.

An estimated 381 people were injured in the quake, the General Secretariat of Communication of the Presidency of Ecuador tweeted on their official account.

In the province of El Oro, at least 11 people died. At least one other death was reported in the province of Azuay, according to the communications department for Ecuador's president. In an earlier statement, authorities said the person in Azuay was killed when a wall collapsed onto a car and that at least three of the victims in El Oro died when a security camera tower came down.

Ross's gull from the Arctic makes rare visit to local beaches in Chicago

Nara Schoenberg
PHYS.ORG
Fri, 17 Mar 2023 12:19 UTC

Ross's gull

It was 8:15 on a Saturday morning when Woody Goss' phone started buzzing.

Annoyed, he checked the screen to find that one of his birding groups was puzzling over a small white gull with distinctive black markings. The bird looked like a Ross's gull—a very rare visitor from the high Arctic that last stopped for an extended visit at Chicago-area beaches in 1978.

But could it be?

Goss—a "gull person" among birders—had no doubt. He ran out of the house and drove from Lakeview to Rainbow Beach on the South Side "faster than I'll admit to a reporter."

And there it was, 2,000 miles from its icy home.

"This is about as good as it gets for me, not just as a birder, but in life," said Goss, 34.